A great deal of progress has been made in the teaching of Jèrriais over the past five years and now the Jèrriais Teaching Service wants to build on that momentum and move closer to what is ultimately our primary objective to create new speakers of Jèrriais.

Therefore, in 2021 the Jèrriais Teaching Service launched a new pilot programme in primary schools.

Flagship School

We are delighted that Plat Douet School agreed to host an intensive Jèrriais pilot programme. It is recognised that multilingualism is linked to greater cognitive outcomes and Plat Douet celebrates a diversity of languages spoken by the children attending the school. 

Since September 2021 one specialist early years teacher has been working in the Foundation Stage with multilingual learners as well as those children needing support with communication, speech and language development.

This same teacher teaches Jèrriais further up the school, and children in Years 2 to 6 receive weekly half-hour Jèrriais lessons.

 

Hub Schools

The Jèrriais Teaching Service carried out a pilot cross-curricular Jèrriais themed course across five Hub Schools in the summer of 2021. The course entitled Alentou d'Jèrri (Around Jersey) took place in the afternoons in key stage 2 and, as well as Jèrriais language content, incorporated other aspects of the Jersey Curriculum, including Jersey history and geography, drama, music, art and PE.

Hub Schools

Pilot expansion

The pilot was so successful that a second course Jèrri Dêmuchi (Jersey Uncovered) was developed and both are now being rolled out to other primary schools across the island. So far, as well as the five hub schools, children at St John, La Moye, Trinity, Les Landes, De La Salle, Mont Nicolle, JC Prep, Grouville and St Luke's have also had access to this popular programme.

Pallions

The pandemic has prevented the Pallions from operating as originally planned. It was envisaged that each of the Hub Schools would host weekly Pallions that served children from the surrounding area. However, the need for bubbles made this unworkable.

Therefore, in June 2021 Pallions were set up in the five Hub Schools but only for children attending those schools. In the meantime, more Pallions have been running in other schools listed below. This programme will be amended and expanded as Covid restrictions allow.

Lessons are fun, using games-based activities that aim to introduce the language to new learners as well as consolidate the learning of children participating in the cross-curricular project in schools.

Children who attend these Pallions have the opportunity to participate in the Jèrriais Section of the Jersey Eisteddfod.

Pallion times and locations

JC Prep Monday 12.00pm - 12.30pm
St Mary Monday 3.15pm - 4.00pm
Plat Douet Tuesday 3.15pm - 4.00pm
Beaulieu Tuesday 3.15pm - 4.00pm
St Martin Wednesday 3.00pm - 3.45pm
Springfield Wednesday 3.00pm - 3.45pm
D'Auvergne Thursday 12.00pm - 1.00pm
St Lawrence Thursday 3.15pm - 4.00pm
Bel Royal Thursday 3.30pm - 4.15pm

If you are interested offering Jèrriais at your school please get in touch with Ben Spink at the Jèrriais Teaching Service at l'Office du Jèrriais:

Phone: 449292

Email: b.spink@jeron.je

Last modified: Thursday, 24 March 2022, 8:03 AM